by Zuri Day
“It is frustrating when one’s phone calls aren’t returned. Especially when they’ve been made to someone who was so adamant in defining our friendship as a relationship. It seems like ever since that happened, you’ve been unavailable.”
“Me? Unavailable? You sure that’s the limb you want to climb out on?”
“I’m too tired to climb or argue. I’m calling because I miss you, Dexter. Work has been crazy. And while I’ve been very upfront about the demands of establishing this center, I perhaps haven’t been as vocal about how much I want you to continue to be a part of my life.”
There was a long moment of silence before Dexter responded. “Okay.”
“That’s it? Okay?”
“I didn’t know how you felt, Faye. It was clear that you cared about what happened to your center but not so much about what happened to us.”
“Is that why you haven’t returned my phone calls?”
“I got your messages. I could have called you. But a lot has been going on in my life, too.” A pause and then. “Diamond had her baby.”
“Oh, my goodness! The first child of the next generation. I’m so happy for all of you.”
“Thank you. We’re pretty happy, too.”
“What did she have?”
“A boy. His name is Deval. Deval David Jackson Drake-Wright.”
“Wow. Quite a name. Sounds like a lot of expectations are on his tiny shoulders.”
“He’s a Drake. He can handle it.” A beat and then, “I missed you, too.”
“You have?”
“Of course.”
“Then why are you on the phone and not burning up the miles between us in that rocket you call a car?”
“My upscale Honda?” Faye was glad to hear the smile in his voice. “The center is closed on Sundays, right?”
“Yes.”
“So why don’t I arrange for a car to pick you up, get out of the urban oasis and relax for a minute, spend the night in wine country.”
“I don’t know, Dexter. Your mother is very astute. As much as I think I have your family’s favor, I’m not too sure how she’d feel with her son’s lover spending the night under the same roof as her.”
“It’s a really big roof,” Dexter explained. “If it will help matters, no one even needs to know that you’re in the east wing.”
“But I’d want to stop by and see Papa Dee.”
“Then you’ll have to come out of hiding, my love.” When Faye didn’t object, Dexter continued. “I’ll have a car there in a half hour. No need to pack much. We’ll be naked most of the time.”
Chapter 32
A few hours later, Dexter knocked on the door of the same suite Faye had occupied when she was first a guest at Drake Wines. He had one word for her as soon as she opened the door. “Chicken.”
“Call me what you want,” Faye said, turning around to give Dexter a full view of the snug shorts she wore. “But I didn’t feel comfortable with the thought of sexing it up in your parents’ house. I don’t care how large an estate it is.”
Dexter reached her in two strides and pulled her back against him. He began kissing her neck while his hand ran a trail from her breast to the valley of his temptation. Until meeting Dexter, to go from zero to sixty degrees of passion in nanoseconds was not something Faye thought possible. She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’ve missed you so much, Dexter.” Kisses punctuated every word.
“Really?” He began his own exploration of her face with his mouth. “I couldn’t tell.”
“You know my schedule.” Faye ran her hands over his shoulders and back.
Dexter grabbed her booty. “I’m getting ready to know this.” He picked her up and walked them to the couch in the suite’s sitting area. Soon, words gave way to a totally different kind of conversation. Faye relaxed into Dexter’s arms and absorbed his kisses. When his hand once again slid toward the juncture of her paradise, she opened her legs to ease his access. No matter their differences in lifestyle, their crazy schedules or time apart, their lovemaking never suffered. Dexter had awakened a passion that Faye had never known. He’d awakened in her a sexual hunger that only he could satisfy. She put all else out of her mind except this man and this moment as she eased her hand inside his unzipped cargo shorts, searching for and finding a thick, hardened dick, fairly pulsating in her hand. She lightly ran a fingernail around the perfectly formed mushroom tip and was rewarded with a prolonged hiss. Emboldened, she slid off Dexter’s lap and placed her face where her hand had been, taking him in, swirling her tongue around his member and causing his hips to begin a circular rotation to the beat of her strokes. She felt his hands in her curls, massaging her upper head while she massaged his lower one.
“Ooh, baby,” he whispered, through clenched teeth after Faye produced a suction rivaling a vacuum cleaner. “Come sit on it.”
Feeling powerfully seductive, Faye raised herself over Dexter’s waiting manhood and slowly sank down before either of them thought about protection. The delicious friction created from this unexpectedly raw yet welcomed development caused them both to shudder. Over and again she performed this titillating act until Dexter, tired of the teasing, took her by the hips and took control. Pounding into her with powerful thrusts, he tossed his head back in ecstasy and concentration, and the world faded away save for the moist, soft body he held. Faye wasn’t shy. She matched him stroke for stroke, encouraging him on like a jockey on a racehorse. “Yes!” she panted, using thigh muscles she didn’t even know she had. “Ooh, feels so good. Yes! Like that! Oh!”
“Who does this belong to, huh?” Dexter’s words were punctuated by thrusts, long and deep. “Whose is this?”
“Yours,” Faye moaned.
“Say my name,” he demanded, his thrusts more forceful, purposeful. In a sudden, unexpected move, he lifted her off him, sat her on the couch and stood behind her. Soon the heat of his sword was again felt inside her, and the dance resumed. “Say my name!”
“Dexter!” Faye was delirious with the pleasure he created. He churned. She chanted. “Dexter! Dexter! Dexter!”
Forty-five minutes later they sat at the dining room table, devouring the room service they’d ordered. “You can’t make me wait this long no more,” Dexter said around a crisp, hot fry. “You know if I don’t get any, I’ll go blind.”
“Geez, Dexter, that is so lame.” Faye savored a bite of her mushroom-topped burger. “You forget that you’re talking to a doctor.”
“Oh, right. Well, in that case it’s not blindness. It’s blue balls.”
They continued in this teasing vein, and as much as she feigned irritation, she was secretly pleased to know that once again Dexter hadn’t been with anyone during the time they’d been apart. Sometimes, as it was with the clinic, being with someone like Dexter felt like a dream. When he can have his pick among all the women in California, what is it that he sees in me? She decided to ask him.
Dexter finished his bite and sat back, his look thoughtful. “It’s a number of things,” he finally began. “First off, you’re fine. No,” he said, holding up his hand in anticipation of her protest. “You need to stop comparing yourself to the women you’ve seen around me or those Cali girls you see on the screen. Yes, they are beautiful, but so are you. There are different kinds of beauty. You’ve shown me a pure, simple beauty that I’d never noticed before but that I find quite attractive. You’re not materialistic, nor easily impressed. You’re smart. You’re committed. And finally, you cast a mean line.”
Faye smiled at his reference to her fishing abilities. “Don’t forget how I handle a cast-iron skillet over an open flame.”
“That, too.” Dexter reached for his glass and finished off the lemon water. “Babe, what are you doing next Saturday afternoon?”
“You know what I’m doing on Sa
turdays. I’m at the clinic. Why?”
“One of my boys is having his thirtieth birthday party in L.A. I want you to come with me.”
“Thanks, Dexter, but we’re always so busy on Saturdays. Plus, LA is really not my scene.”
Dexter’s brows creased. “A free clinic isn’t necessarily my scene, but that didn’t stop me from coming and supporting you.”
“That’s different, Dex.”
“How so?”
She turned to face him. “You honestly don’t draw a line between saving lives versus shaking your rump?”
“It’s not about the party, which is about more than butt shaking by the way. It’s about being with me.” He took a deep breath to calm his ire and tried to explain. “In my business, socializing, networking and scoring major contacts are all about business. High-profile clients staying here is great PR. Businessmen holding their conferences here is free marketing. One guy tells another how great it is, and before you know, the meeting rooms are booked year-round. There are going to be some A-list people at this party, and I have to tell you, it doesn’t feel good having to explain the details in order to get you to come with me.”
“I’m sorry, Dexter. I had no idea your attending this party had anything to do with business. I didn’t mean to belittle you, or the invitation.” She could tell he was still irritated. He had a right to be. “I’d love to come with you, but...”
He looked at her from the corner of his eye. “But what?”
“Gerald is coming into town next Saturday.” Dexter huffed, but she decided to ignore his outburst. “He’s taken a leave of absence from the hospital in Baltimore to do a thirty-day stint at the clinic. Depending on how all of that goes, he may relocate and become the second, much-needed doctor at the facility.”
“When were you going to tell me that your long lost friend would be joining your staff?”
Faye took a calming breath before responding. “I’m telling you now.”
“What does his being in town have to do with Saturday night?” Dexter asked, after several tense seconds passed.
“Pastor Jack and his wife, Millicent, have scheduled a dinner at their house with several of the board members, including one who is his neighbor and a millionaire, working in real estate.”
“And you invited your doctor friend instead of me?”
“I didn’t even think about you.” Dexter jumped up from the table. “No,” Faye continued, following him into the living room area. “Wait, that didn’t come out right. I didn’t think about inviting you because for Gerald, this is an informal interview. They’ll have questions about his experience and he’ll have questions about the clinic’s ongoing funding, which will be how he gets paid.”
Dexter stood with his back to her, staring at the backlit fountain and pristine garden from the floor-to-ceiling windows in her suite. When she placed her arms around him and laid her head against his back, she could feel his tension. “You know, babe, this is all so new to me. You, this relationship, the health center, trying to balance it all. It’s only been a few months. I’m still trying to figure it out, still learning about who you are and how you tick.” She felt his muscles relax, felt his slow, deep intake of breath. “I care a lot about you, Dexter. Having you in my life has made me happier than I’ve ever been. You’re important to me and I want to be with you and support you. I only hope that you can be a little patient with me until I can...figure it all out.”
Instead of making love again, they talked for the next two hours. Dexter had a breakfast meeting and Faye was up and out of the suite before six the next morning. During the entire drive back to San Diego, she thought about what Dexter had said, how he supported what she was doing and how he understood.
But his parting hug—light and indifferent—had Faye questioning whether he would every really, truly comprehend the demands of her business. Had her thinking that maybe Gerald was right and that no one outside their profession could handle their demanding lives.
Chapter 33
“I can see myself living here in San Diego. It’s nice.” It was nine o’clock on Saturday night and Faye and Gerald were leaving the tony suburb of La Jolla and Pastor Jack Kirtz’s ocean-view home.
“This area is certainly amazing,” Faye agreed. “But you’ve got to have deep pockets to live here.”
“Where do you live?”
“In an older, residential community not far from the center.”
“The area around the clinic is a little shady. Is your neighborhood safe?”
“Most major city downtown areas have their questionable spots, but I’m about ten minutes from there and yes, I feel safe. There is a neighborhood watch group and I have nosy neighbors. Plus, mine is a security building.”
“Any openings there?”
“You thinking about becoming my neighbor if you move?”
“Sure, why not?”
“There are only six units, and right now they’re all rented. But I’ll keep an eye out.” She eased onto the freeway and continued. “One or two bedroom?”
“Probably three. One for my daughter, and one for my office/workout room.”
“You can work out at our gym.”
“That’s true. But I’d still want an office.” As they became silent, Gerald snuck glances at Faye’s countenance. Something was bothering her; had been all night. She’d done her best to keep her smile bright and her voice lively, but he’d known her too long to be fooled. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“About what?”
“Don’t even try it, Buck. We’ve shared too many secrets. I know when something’s bothering you. If you’d rather not talk about it...”
“No, I don’t mind. It may be good to get another male perspective.”
“This must have something to do with your playboy.”
“He’s not a playboy, Gerald.” Faye’s tone showed her displeasure at his choice of descriptions. Forget the fact that at one time she’d called him that herself. She shared a bit of her conversation with Dexter. “He’s my friend. And he’s frustrated,” she finished. “I don’t blame him.”
“I won’t be the one to say I told you so.”
“Look, there are millions of doctors who are practicing and also have stable, successful personal lives.”
“Name five that you know of.”
“That’s not a fair question. You know that with the type of work I’ve done the past eight years, that most of those doctors are single. My best friend, Adeline, is no doctor. But she is a very dedicated administrator and the director of Haitian Heartbeats. She is also the mother of two, with a very understanding husband and support system. It is possible to have the best of both worlds.”
Gerald eyed Faye a long moment. “Who are you trying to convince? Me...or yourself?”
While the ride back to Somerset Suites was quiet, the next day found Gerald and Faye sharing their usual camaraderie. After attending Pastor Jack’s church service, they stopped at a seafood restaurant for Gerald’s favorite: lobster.
“Are you still balking about trying this tasty crustacean?” Gerald asked, as they perused the menus.
“I don’t want to bite anything that looks like it can bite me back.”
“Then you should get it poached in butter without the shell. I guarantee you’ll love it.”
“I’m sure I would. But I think I’ll have the blackened salmon over the wild rice pilaf.” Faye took a sip of tea that the waiter had just put down.
“I’m excited that you’ll be here for the radiology room construction.” She went from lobsters to X-ray laboratories in the blink of an eye.
Gerald followed the transition effortlessly. “Are you still hoping for a digital imaging device?”
“You know I’d love one.”
“But they’re runni
ng, what...sixty, seventy thousand?”
“More like eighty.”
“And the analogs are going for around twenty, twenty-five I’d imagine.”
“Exactly.”
“Is the construction firm that did the renovation going to do the install?”
Faye shook her head. “One of my contacts at San Diego State has recommended a company that specializes in these rooms. They’re willing to do it at an extremely reduced fee because we’re nonprofit.”
“What are the specs?”
“Not sure yet.” She looked at her watch. “But I need to know. I’ll probably head over to the center after we’re done here. I have a telephone conference with the guy next week.”
“Would you like me to go with you?”
“Thanks, Gerald, but you’ve hardly seen the city. I don’t want to encroach on your personal time.”
“You know with a doctor there is no such thing. If you don’t mind driving me around for one more day, I can skip going to the airport for my rental and go to the Hertz that’s closer to the center on Monday.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
They finished their meal and headed over to the center. What was intended to be a five-, ten-minute stop to measure what would become the X-ray room turned into three hours of surfing the web for medical equipment and discussing the benefits of preventative and alternative health care. By the time she dropped Gerald off at his hotel and headed home, she’d forgotten all about calling Dexter.
And from the looks of the tabloid picture that greeted her the next morning when she stopped to get her morning coffee, he’d forgotten all about her, too.
Chapter 34
Faye pulled her Hyundai into the center’s small parking lot and hurried inside.
“Good morning!” Vickie’s sunny personality clashed against the storm inside Faye’s heart.
“I need a minute,” Faye said, passing Vickie’s desk without stopping. “Hold my calls.” She reached her office, closed the door and pulled out her cell phone. “I can’t do this,” was her greeting to Adeline.
